Nan's eyes were good but she herself could make out only two rapidly moving specks. Mrs. Gallagher was very positive, however, and a few minutes proved that she was right.
Nan did not immediately recognize the girl who rode up, flushed and breathless from the fast gallop and the effort of leading two unwilling horses.
Her hat was awry and her faded habit powdered with dust when she drew rein in the dooryard where Nan was waiting. She said without ceremony:
"Throw what you need in a sack that we can tie behind, and pile on as fast as you can. Spiser's liable to be back any minute. I thought I saw him drive out of a gulch as I dropped off the mesa."
Nan remembered her now. It was the girl who had ridden beside Ben Evans that first day in Hopedale. Fritz Poth had said her name was Blakely—Edith Blakely.
"But I don't care if he does come, now that I am not dependent upon him for the means of getting away," Nan replied defiantly.
Edith glanced nervously toward the mesa.
